1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a system for enabling data to interact with a data structure via the Internet.
2. Description of the Related Art
Designing and building a project is a long and complicated process that requires the diverse services of many participants. These design and build participants may include architects, structural engineers, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, interior designers, etc. who are responsible for creating the design drawings for the project. The participants may include purchasing agents who are responsible for purchasing components (e.g., furniture, fixtures and equipment, etc.) for integration into the project. Contractors and subcontractors are needed to actually build the project according to the design plans. Expeditors are often needed to receive and route purchased components to the construction site when needed by contractors and subcontractors. The project participants may further include accountants who are responsible for tracking the project's fiscal budget and paying for components purchased. A project manager may manage the participants, for example, by approving some or all changes to the project requested by the participants. Additionally, the project owner's participation is often needed to insure that the project progresses to his satisfaction from initial conception through completion.
A project typically involves many phases including design and build phases. These phases often overlap and each is highly dynamic. The design phase usually starts with one or more design professionals creating initial design drawings (e.g., prints) of the final project according to a developer's direction. The prints generally include perimeter lines representing specific areas (e.g., restaurants, rooms, lobbies, offices, etc.) within the project. The prints may also include graphical representations of components within the specified areas. For example, an architect may create prints of a restaurant area of a Hotel/Casino project. The restaurant prints may include graphical representations of furniture, fixtures, mechanical equipment, electrical equipment, etc. Examples include tables, windows, ovens, refrigerators, a backup power generator, etc. The project may start with many different sets of prints, all related to each other.
The initial prints or sets of prints, once completed, are provided to several other participants involved in the design and build process. For example, the restaurant prints example above may be provided to one or more structural engineers, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers and interior designers for their review, modification, and/or supplementation. These project participants may add further graphical representations of components to the initial set of prints. An interior designer of the project may wish to add graphical representations of additional components such as chairs or art work to a dining room sub-area of the example restaurant blueprint above. A structural engineer may also seek to add graphical representations of components to the restaurant prints such as a platform on which the backup power generator (graphically represented in the print) rests. Often times different participants may receive different sets of prints which are related to each other.
When project participants (e.g., engineers, interior designers, etc.) receive initial prints of the project, the prints give very little information about the components graphically represented therein. Typically, the prints simply identify the components by title or type (e.g., “a table,” “a window,” “a backup power generator”). It is usually the responsibility of the engineers, interior designers, etc., to further define or specify the characteristics or attributes of components originally contained in the prints or components added to the prints. Some of this information may be entered onto the prints by the engineers or designers. However, it is more likely that a separate specification sheet is created by the engineers or designers for each component graphically represented on the print. Thus, an interior designer may create a separate specification sheet for each type of chair graphically represented in the restaurant print, wherein each specification sheet contains descriptive information (size, color, fabric, whether the fabric is treated, etc.) regarding a respective chair. Likewise, an electrical engineer may, for example, create a separate specification sheet for the graphically represented backup power generator describing, for example, the generator's size, power generation capacity, weight, etc.
Engineers and designers normally employ software applications for generating specification sheets for project components for which they have responsibility. These software applications generate electronic versions of specification sheets into which engineers or interior designers hand enter descriptive information of the corresponding component. Additionally, a reference to a graphical representation in a print is normally entered into each specification sheet so that each specification sheet can be associated with the respective component represented on the prints.
Existing electronic specification sheets are arranged as flat files, templates, or spreadsheets. Once the engineers or designers finish authoring their specification sheets, the specification sheets are provided to other project participants for their review, modification, supplementation, and/or approval. The specification sheets can be sent as e-mail attachments if the recipient has a computer system with appropriate software applications for accessing the attachments. Alternatively, copies of the specification sheet may be printed and distributed. One copy is normally saved by the author as the original specification sheet either in electronic version form, hard copy form, or both, for archiving purposes. It is noted that except for the reference mentioned above, the specification sheets, either in hard copy or e-mail attachment form, are distributed physically separated from corresponding prints.
One or more revisions to each of the specification sheets may occur throughout the design and build process. Indeed, revisions to a specification sheet can occur even after the corresponding component has been purchased. In this latter case, the purchased component, if it can be found, would normally be returned to its manufacturer and the purchase price refunded less restocking fees.
Specification sheet revisions may occur for a variety of reasons by a variety of project participants. For example, the project owner, upon receipt of a specification sheet for one type of the restaurant chairs, may desire the chair color to be different than originally specified by an interior designer, or the project owner may decide that the chair as originally specified would be too expensive. Another interior designer for the project, upon receipt of the same specification sheet for the restaurant chair, may notice that the originally specified fabric did not include a fire treatment in accordance with local fire codes. The structural engineer, upon receipt of the specification sheet for the backup power generator, may notice that his platform may not support the weight of the backup generator specified by the electrical engineer. At any rate, it is apparent that the specification sheets may be subjected to several iterative revisions.
Each reason for revision is communicated to the original author who, in response, revises the specification sheet in accordance thereto. Once revised, the specification sheet is redistributed to other project participants for further review, modification, supplementation, and/or approval. It is noted that the original specification sheet author usually has the responsibility for maintaining a history of all revisions to his specification sheet, and the responsibility that all necessary project participants have the most up to date version of his specification sheet.
Once a specification sheet for a component has been approved by all the necessary project participants, it may be submitted to the project's purchase agent. The purchase agent, in turn, may create a purchase order for the component using information from the specification sheet. The purchasing agent, like the project engineers and interior designers, may employ a computer system executing specialized software for generating an electronic purchase order sheet. Typically, the purchasing agent transfers specification sheet information by hand into the electronic purchase order sheet, and subsequently sends the purchase order sheet to manufacturers via hard copy or e-mail attachment. A copy of the purchase order is also typically sent to the project's accountant. This data may also be sent to the original specifier to update the specification sheet
As noted above, the design and build process involves a substantial number of participants. The complexity of large-scale construction projects often necessitates contributions from a corresponding large number of design and build participants. Indeed, the design and construction of modern Hotel/Casinos often require teams of architects, interior designers, purchasing agents, etc., whereas the design and construction of a stand alone retail store may only require the services of a single architect, interior designer, purchasing agent, etc. Nonetheless, each project participant requires collaboration and an exchange of information including design plans, specification sheets, etc., with one or more of the other project participants for the project to progress efficiently and effectively to completion.
Collaboration and the exchange of information, including prints and specification sheets, between design and build participants adds to the complexity of each project. Effective and efficient collaboration and information exchange is often the single most important key to bringing a project to fruition in a quality, timely and cost effective manner. However, as more fully exemplified above, collaboration and information exchange between participants, is typically a chaotic process.
Co-pending application Ser. Nos. 10/020,552, 10/015,903, 10/016,615, 10/021,661 and 09/519,935 disclose an Intelligent Business System which allows participants to collaborate with each other. The system includes a central data store and applications which communicate with the store via a network such as the Internet. With the amount of data passing between the collaborators and the store, one must ensure accurate and latency free data exchange.
Mechanisms which enable efficient communication between the collaborators, and specifically the applications running on the participants processing devices, to communicate with the data store, are useful in creating efficiencies within collaboration projects.